Yours truly here was too eager to start making BAMMMM cute bentos right away without mastering the basics, so this post is about my attempt at the “Advanced level”. Explains why perhaps my bentos arent as awesome as some out there but oh well, its my first go at it!

I’ll try to share how I made the bento as well to the best of my knowledge. There are a lot of books out there on Bento-making, but the best are always in Japanese. I bought them anyways, I find that you can still follow the pictures. Good bento-making books include a step-by-step, so head down to Kinokuniya for books on 弁当!

a cutter (the blade has to be small enough to be used for intricate detailed cutting)

small and sharp scissors (very important that it be sharp and sharp ended, not those safe and clumsy round tip blades that could wreck your seaweed)

tweezers (life savers)

pencil, pen, eraser

Baking paper/tracing paper

Bento box

Cute toothpicks and wooden toothpicks

Small brush, thoroughly cleaned, for painting the food colouring on

Ingredients used:-

2 slices of bread with the brown edges cut off to fit into the bento box

Sliced cheese

Tamago bought from the Japanese supermarket (just because it was a nice bright yellow and I was lazy to make thin Japanese omelettes. I should have… because this tamago that i bought was really hard to use!)

Ham (light coloured ham and darker coloured ham) – as thin as possible, so yours doesnt turn up too thick and chunky like mine. Also makes it easier to cut

Cherry tomatoes (1 for each bento)

Blue food colouring

Roasted seaweed (comes in large squares), get the unseasoned ones, those are easier to cut.

Fruit and cooked meats and vegetables of your choice

Cooked rice

A dab of mayo to act as a sticking agent

Below, my loot from collecting bento making tools. The bento boxes can be bought from takashimaya, Japanese supermarkets or online. I bought some of the cutters from Takashimaya, some from Daiso. Tweezers are from Daiso as well.

Above, the tools used. Starting from the top: Cutting mat, binder clips, pen knifes for intricate cutting (don’t buy the usual pen knifes, those are too big for the work you’ll be doing), eraser, pencil, pen, small scissors, tweezers.

Instructions:

First of all, you have to outline your bento box on a piece of paper. This is to make the bento easier to design and will give you a gauge of how much food you need to buy.

Then you choose your favourite character and draw him/her within the bento box line. I started off with Rukia from Bleach just because her hair is black, and not some funky colour like green or pink etc. So its easier for me. Also Naruto’s colours are made up of orange, flesh tones, white and black. Not too bad as well.

I’ve compiled a list of foods to match the colours:

Pink/flesh toned – Ham, salami, pickled ginger, pink powder (you see this sprinkled on rice sometimes, not sure what is the exact name)

Enoki and button mushrooms make great pebbles/stones interpretation in the bentos, while broccoli and english parsley make great shrubs 😉 Use your imagination!

Below, Naruto and Rukia sketched onto a piece of paper:

Decide on the position of your character, and then start to eke out what foods will complement/fill out the rest of the bento. Of course, think about what you’d like to eat as well.

With this, you’ll be able to shop for groceries 😉

For Naruto, many layers are involved. A lot of ham and egg layers as well as seaweed. So, you need a base to hold everything. which is what you see in the top left outline of Naruto. This will be the foundation to hold the rest of the layers. I drew all the layering on a piece of baking paper. Then I cut up the paper into smaller sections so its easier to work with.

Lay out the sketch outline onto the ham and cut slowly along the lines.

Edit: It would be easier to cut out the shapes on the baking paper, and lay it onto the cheese/ham to cut. I was lazy so I made my life way more difficult that way =(

Above, the foundation laid out on a slice of bread, so later on its easy to move.

Trace out the seaweed parts onto a tracing paper, and fasten the tracing paper on top of a piece of seaweed onto the cutting mat. Trace along the lines with your blade to cut out the seaweed in the desired shape.

I put the seaweed on as the 3rd layer, the 2nd layer being Naruto’s face. Then I traced out the egg and put that on as 4th layer.

Then you need to cut out the yellow egg for the eyes. This is where straws of different sizes would come in handy as they cut perfect circles. But I forgot to buy them, so now I have uneven eyes T____T. It is a little difficult to trace out small strips of seaweed for the eyes and mouth, so I used the scissors to create them. Its useful to have a dab of mayonnaise at hand to get the seaweed to stick to the ham.

This Naruto ham and cheese sandwich took me 2.5 hours to make since the seaweed was so fiddly and there were so many layers!

Next up, Rukia~

For Rukia there won’t be any layering, because this is going to be a seaweed art piece. So all I used for her is a slice of cheese, seaweed and a little bit of food colouring.

Rukia layers on the baking paper. When you do seaweed art it is important to emphasize the black areas on the piece, as you will need to cut out the white bits.

First, cut out the foundation: instead of using a toothpick, you can trace the on the line with a knife, and remove the paper to cut the cheese. Much easier that way as it is easy to see the trace lines on cheese rather than say, ham.

Place the foundation on a mound of rice, packed tight.

Start working on the seaweed!

Fasten securely on the cutting mat.

Cut out the white bits and carefully poke out the white parts. Its ok if you accidentally tear some of it off, you can use another piece of seaweed to fix it later.

Place her hair onto the foundation, and add seaweed for the blacks of her eyes (since I accidentally tore it off). Then cut out a piece of seaweed for her clothes. Then you will need to use a pair of scissors to cut fine seaweed lines for her nose, mouth and chin, as well as her clothes.

Another good wine dinner featuring Domaine Faiveley wines. The dinner was held at Shangrila with the following line-up of wines:

DOMAINE FAIVELEY

Whites

Bâtard-Montrachet 2009

Grand Cru Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet 2011

Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne 2011

Premier Cru Meursault « Blagny » 2011 & 2007

Grand Cru Montrachet 2011

Reds

Grand Cru Chambertin Clos de Bèze 2011 & 2007,

Grand Cru Clos de la Roche 2009,

Grand Cru Clos de Vougeot 2011 & 2007,

Grand Cru Corton Clos des Cortons 2011 & 2000,

Grand Cru échezeaux 2011,

Premier Cru Gevrey-Chambertin Les Cazetiers 2011,

Grand Cru Latricières-Chambertin 2011 & 2008,

Grand Cru Mazis-Chambertin 2011,

Premier Cru Pommard Les Rugiens 2011 & 2007,

Premier Cru Volnay-Santenots 2007,

I started off with the Grand Cru Meursault Blagny 2011, which had light sweet fruit and clean taste. Seem to always favour Meursaults don’t I? Lol! Too much of a plain vanilla person by nature.

Next up, the Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne 2011which had a heavier, golden toasted wood tinge to it. Somewhat buttery, however, I found it was quite a serious and dry wine.

When I saw this I really wanted to try it as we have some unopened bottles in the storage, but never tasted it before. The Grand Cru échezeaux 2011 tasted of toasty barrel and redcurrant fruit.

Above, a small taste of the Grand Cru Pommard Les Rugiens 2011. While it has dense fruit I didn’t like that it was more sour than the Echezeaux, and as well it had some licorice tints in it. Not too much of a fan of this wine.

Above, the Grand Cru Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet 2011, nice pale gold in color with toast cedar in the nose while in the palate the wine is structured with complex rich layers and a good long finish of at least 9 seconds.

Next up, the Grand Cru Corton, Clos des Cortons 2011. I know, I shouldn’t have switched back and forth between the whites and reds. Should have just done whites, followed by the reds but you must understand, there was quite a large group of people in front of the tasting table and it was difficult to go at it in sequence ;). Plus I tend to clog up the area when I take pictures as well hehhehehehe~

The Corton was deep bright red and had deliciously deep full bodied flavours with blackberries and smooth in the mouth. Reminded me a little of Ribena 0.o if that doesn’t give you enough of an idea of how amateurish I am, I will later describe another wine as tasting very much like Fanta grape 😉 Blasphemy!

At this point, dinner was almost about to start, so I rushed through another 2-3 wines and didn’t manage to take pictures of the wine in the glass.

This is the Grand Cru Clos de Vougeot 2011. I only remember the colour as being deep red, which I always like as it makes me think of good sweet fruit and depth in flavour. The wine didn’t disappoint, with what seemed like a higher concentration in fruit in the heavier berry tones, and it was sweeter and thicker than the previous wines. Some redcurrant definitely in there followed by a long finish and a nice aftertaste.

I took just a sip of the Chambertin Clos de Bèze 2011 and the Grand Cru Mazis-Chambertin 2011, which was a shame as both are really good wines to me.

Upon sipping the Mazis, I felt a the wine create a nice soaring sensation (no, its not because I was drunk, its just that the wine is one-of-a-kind 😉 with explosive flavour and sweet, rich, dark berries. One of my favorites for the night.

The Clos de Beze is heavier than mazis and also delicious. It was silky and opulent, had some raspberry overlay and mineral in it as well.

After the hurried tasting:

Dinner and wine pairing, and the list of wines for the tasting reception as well as the dinner wines.

The first two wines were both a glorious golden hue in color:

1) Bâtard-Montrachet 2009 – I got a slight shock at this on first taste, it does smacks you in the face at first impression. With its toasty nose, it was heavy and strong but like good cheese it tapers down deliciously. Slight spice, savoury and chewy all at once, even almost salty! It tasted amazing with food and went well with the shrimp; they brought out the best in each other. This gorgeous, rich and balanced wine was my favorite of the night. In fact it was one of the favourites of many people that night. I had 2 glasses of this XD

2) Grand Cru Meursault Blagny 2007 on the other hand was all chalk with mineral nose and was sweet yet savoury. Much heavier than the 2011 and complex with green fruit. After leaving it for a while, I thought that it had some caramel in the nose.

Salmon tartar with ginger crackling.

Poached shrimp that was mehh by itself was completely transformed by the Batard Montrachet 2009. It just urges you to keep on eating. No wonder I can’t seem to lose the weight!

3) Grand Cru Clos de Vougeot 2007 – floral bouquet nose and wild flowers in the mouth with a hint of pencil lead or earth I can’t tell the difference. Even felt like it was a little herb-y =p

4) Chambertin « Clos de Bèze 2007 – mellow with tannins. Smooth with a long finish. I don’t remember it being very heavy.

5)Premier Cru Latricières-Chambertin 2008 – Remember what I mentioned earlier about fanta grape? This is it! Hahahaha, I distinctly remember saying I thought it tasted like fanta grape, to my fellow diner’s horror 😉 It is in fact quite spicy with prominent grape. I didn’t like the spice so much though.

6) Grand Cru Corton Clos des Cortons 2000 had a deeper red hue in comparison with the previous three wines. Its dark red but not yet reddish brown at all. Red fruit and tannins and apparently the flagship of Faiveley. It was described as a very masculine wine that can be kept for a long time.

The mushroom risotto that I dearly wished for a bigger serving. Risotto isn’t usually my thing but this was really good. Somewhat like campbell soup XD

Notice that no. 6 was a deeper red than the no. 3? Wine glasses number 3,4, and 5 were similar in terms of colour and viscousity.

Sage roasted chicken breast, which was also very good. Nice and tender and the ricotta stuffed squash blossom fritters were light and tasty. Never imagined them to complement each other so well!

And now the dark horse:

Grand Cru Clos de la Roche 2009, the unnumbered glass. Not all the wines listed in the dinner wines were served, so we could request a glass of whatever wine from the list that we’d like to try. Again, I had 2 glasses of this.

Another fantastic wine, opulent and sweet with cherry in the nose. A very smooth, meaty wine, I much preferred this to the Clos des Cortons. Another favourite for the night!

To summarize, these were the outstanding wines for the night: The Mazis Chambertin 2011, Batard Montrachet 2009 and the Clos de la Roche 2009

Yes, pasta again and this time, with mentaiko (marinated cod roe or pollock roe). By itself, the mentaiko is salty and sometimes spicy, which is why its normally eaten raw with rice (only if it’s sashimi quality) or used in cooking for flavor. It goes really well with fatty foods like cream and mayonnaise.

Sea urchin roe is one of my favourite sashimi! So rich and creamy and briny <3. I tried sea urchin pasta for the first time in Japan a few years back and it was amazing as well. And of course I had to try to make it myself, but I always feel heartsick at the thought of throwing all the expensive uni into pasta when I can just have it as sashimi and savour every single bit of it. That’s why on my first attempt at uni pasta, I just used a few bits (see the following 3 pictures).

I probably used a quarter of the package of uni. The box of uni in itself is already really small, so the uni flavour in the pasta wasn’t as prominent as I would have liked it. But the pictures were way better as I took them during the daytime, whereas my 2nd attempt photos were dependent on dim lighting =(.

Pleased to say that on the 2nd attempt, the pasta came out creamier and more luscious! I sacrificed the whole box this time… just for myself *guilt*. I also omitted the seaweed as it got in the way of the flavour of the pasta. It goes better with mentaiko pasta I think.

The recipe was adapted from http://www.eataduckimust.com/uni-pasta

Ingredients (For 1 greedy person)

1/2 cup thickened cream (the original recipe calls for 1 cup cream per person, you could just adjust accordingly. I’m just trying to make myself feel less guilty)

3 prawns shelled and deveined with tails on (Reserve the prawn shells and heads)

Melt the butter over low heat and add the prawn heads/shells in. Crush the prawn heads so that all the flavour comes out into the butter. Take the pan off the heat so that the butter doesn’t brown and continue crushing the shells.

Pour the butter and shells into a sieve and squeeze out all the juices/butter into another pan (you’ll use this pan to make the cream sauce)

Meanwhile, sear the prawns and set aside

Throw in the chilli padi and the minced garlic into the pan with the prawn head butter and fry until the garlic turns golden. If you like, you can also add a little more butter.

Add in the cream and bring to a simmer before switching it off. Don’t boil the cream.

When the cream has cooled a little, pour into a blender. Your cream shouldn’t be hot as this would cook the uni and scramble the egg later. The uni needs to be soft, raw and creamy while the egg yolk needs to be silky.

Save a few pieces of the uni for garnishing, and add the rest to the cream.

Blend the uni and cream (just need to give it a few pulses) and pour the mixture back into the pan.

Add the beaten egg yolk and stir it in.

Add a tablespoon or so of parmesan cheese into the cream and heat the mixture up again (I’m guestimating here, adapt to your own tastes ;p) . Taste it and season with some salt. (I didn’t put pepper as I thought it might overpower the uni)

Add in the freshly cooked pasta and mix it into the sauce. If you have strong wrists, toss the lot to combine.

Dish out the pasta onto a serving plate, top with the prawns, raw uni, some chives, a bit more cheese and as much ikura as you like~

So silky and creamy and decadent 😉

Now that I’ve seen the amount of sea urchin, prawn head brains and cream that went into the dish, my heart is starting to palpitate at the sheer amount of cholesterol that went into this meal ;(

Almost finished with the truffle series! Here I made two simple dishes with the truffles, a puff pastry and a salad. Really easy and yummy stuff.

Puff Pastry Ingredients (for 1 pax)

A quarter of ready made puff pastry (I used Jus-rol, the 500g packet)

Grate a good handful of your favourite cheese (I used cheddar)

Sliced mushrooms (about 3 fresh swiss brown mushrooms)

1 teaspoon of truffle oil

1 egg

1 egg white to glaze

Black pepper and salt

Salad Ingredients (for 1-2 pax depending on how greedy)

7-8 almonds sliced (If you can buy them pre sliced, that’s even better

Handful of cranberries

Juice and rind from half a yellow lemon (omit the rind if you don’t like it)

3 tbsp mayo

1-2 tbsp honey

Enough salad leaves for 1-2 pax

Instructions

Roll out the ready made pastry into a square and trim off the sides so that it’s nice and neat.

Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C for fan assisted ovens). You should follow the instructions printed on the wrapping, oven temperatures and timings may differ.

Cut a little more of the ready made pastry and roll it out to make 4 strips, you will need to place each strip at the edge of the pastry square so it holds the ingredients (and egg) in.

Arrange the cheese and mushrooms in the pastry, leaving space in the middle. The egg will be added here later on. In the meantime, brush the pastry with the egg white for that golden brown colour

Bake the pastry for about 12 minutes (this would depend on the total time you need to bake the pastry. If you need to bake it for 20 minutes, add the egg 3-4 minutes before completion). If I remember correctly I baked it for 15 minutes, so I slid the egg into the middle after 12 minutes. You can add more cheese around the egg after that if you wish. Then drizzle the truffle oil over the pastry.

Once the pastry is golden brown and the egg is cooked, remove from oven.

While the pastry is cooking, wash and drain the salad leaves, slice the almonds and fry them til golden in color. Pat the excess oil off almonds with a kitchen towel and set aside.

Mix the lemon juice and rind, mayo and honey together in a separate bowl.

Place salad leaves in a salad bowl and toss with the honey lemon and mayo mixture. Add cranberries, sliced almonds and shave some of that black truffle on top. Serve.

Season pastry with black pepper (and, if you chose a mild, not-so-salty cheese, some salt) and add some truffle shavings. Eat!

You can add other things to your salad, I added cherry tomatoes to mine.

If you like your egg less cooked then just cook it for 1.5-2 minutes before removing from the oven. For me, as long as the whites are cooked I’m all good.